UPDATE: Motorcyclist sought in dragnet in Valencia

Suspect gets away.

A sheriff's helicopter hovers and calls for a hit-and-run suspect to make himself known over a public-address system over the wash northwest of Valencia Boulevard and Bouquet Canyon Road in Valencia on Monday.

Sheriff's deputies arrive on off-road motorcycles down Auto Center Court to join in the search for a hit-and-run suspect in the wash northwest of Valencia Boulevard and Bouquet Canyon Road in Valencia on Monday.

A sheriff's deputy investigates the scene where a suspected hit-and-run motorcyclist crashed his motorcycle and fled on foot outside the Arco gas station on Bouquet Canyon Road and Valencia Boulevard in Valencia on Monday.

A motorcyclist hit another motorist and then crashed his bike after fleeing the scene Monday, then took off on foot into the Santa Clara River bed and eluded deputies.

However, Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials said late Monday they have the driver’s ID and they will get their man.

“We know who we’re looking for now,” said Lt. Tom Bryski.

Before the suspect was identified, deputies scrambled into strategic positions along the Santa Clara River wash late Monday morning searching for the motorcyclist who had crashed into a utility box at the northwest corner of Valencia Boulevard and Bouquet Canyon Road.

The motorcyclist was a suspect in an apparent hit-and-run collision involving a car in the parking lot at Lowe’s home improvement store on Bouquet Canyon Road, said Sgt. Ron Olfert.

Neither the crash nor the suspected hit-and-run collision resulted in any injury, he said.

The suspect crashed his modified 600 cc Suzuki about 10:45 a.m. and bolted into the Santa Clara River wash only 20 yards from the crash.

He abandoned his badly scraped and damaged red motorcycle on the sidewalk.

The motorcycle appeared similar to a stripped-down stunt bike with a coolant tank taped with duct tape, a dead hornet squashed into its grill and a front-placed black-and-white decal that reads: “Code of Silence.”

Within five minutes of the crash, sheriff deputies positioned their cruisers along the bike path, taking up spots along the trail about 150 yards apart.

About 20 minutes after that, a deputy in a sheriff’s helicopter began circling an area of the river wash south of Lowe’s and west of Bouquet Canyon Road.

A deputy in the helicopter, using a loudspeaker, called out to the suspect believed hiding in the brush of the dry river wash, saying: “The dog will find you.”

For at least five minutes, the chopper circled an area west of Bouquet Canyon Road, north of Valencia Boulevard and south of Lowe’s, hovering in the same spot in the middle of the wash.

Using a loud speaker, deputies said: “Give yourself up. If you don’t come out, the canine dog will find you.”

Around the perimeter, deputies leaned on the wooden fence that lines the river wash, maintaining their positions as they observed the aerial search.

At least six deputies from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station remained positioned along the wash from Bouquet to Creekside Road looking for the suspect, described as wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt.

Other deputies, some on motorbikes, joined in the search, chasing leads they received by phone, tracking footprints in the wash and questioning people suspected of being the pursued motorcyclist.